Here in Canada (specifically Ontario), we all pay a large amount of tax. when the HST came in, we all paid more on taxes,but surprisingly, the tax went down for making your own wine.

Why you may ask?

Well that is because the Ferment on Premise industry (aka Winemaking) had it's own special tax. It was called the U-brew tax and was based on the amount of litres of wine or beer you make. With the introduction of the HST, this tax was eliminated. The only tax that is paid by the consumer for making wine is the HST (13%) on the service fee. For a typical store, the service fee is somewhere around $40 so that tax is $5.20 tax and that equates to about $0.17 a bottle.

This coupled with fact that you can make wines comparable to commercial wines for a fraction of the price, results a huge consumer savings. For example:

Style Ferment of Premise LCBO Savings

French Merlot $5.30 $12.95 59%

The example is for one bottle, so the savings are even greater for the entire 30 bottle batch.

We all pay too much tax already, so winemaking is a great way to save on taxes!!